Project number
26066
Organization
UA Biosphere 2
Offering
ENGR498-F2025-S2026
In 2022 Biosphere 2 acquired a hydroponic farm housed in a 40-foot shipping container. The systems in the farm, including climate control, irrigation and nutrient dosing, and lighting are all controlled by software, both local and cloud based. Parameters are set according to the specifications for the crops being grown and the farm is governed by a controller that maintains the specified conditions. In June of 2022, personnel at Biosphere 2 started the first crop, harvesting it in August. Since then, staff at Biosphere 2 have grown and harvested as much as 120 pounds of produce a week out of the farm.
On April 30, 2025, the company that designed and built the farm filed for bankruptcy, leaving all owners of the container farms in a quandary as to how they will continue growing produce. The company has assured the grower-operators that the locally-based software will continue to function but that the cloud-based software may be terminated, thereby eliminated ability to observe and control the farm remotely.
Our goal in this challenge is to retain the local-based controls while creating an ad-hoc self-hosted cloud-based controls that can monitor and control our farm remotely. This will require students working in such diverse disciplines as biosystems engineering, computer science, and controlled environment.
On April 30, 2025, the company that designed and built the farm filed for bankruptcy, leaving all owners of the container farms in a quandary as to how they will continue growing produce. The company has assured the grower-operators that the locally-based software will continue to function but that the cloud-based software may be terminated, thereby eliminated ability to observe and control the farm remotely.
Our goal in this challenge is to retain the local-based controls while creating an ad-hoc self-hosted cloud-based controls that can monitor and control our farm remotely. This will require students working in such diverse disciplines as biosystems engineering, computer science, and controlled environment.